A variety of approaches have been developed to condition the hair. A common method of providing conditioning benefit is through the use of conditioning agents such as cationic surfactants and polymers, high melting point fatty compounds, low melting point oils, silicone compounds, and mixtures thereof. Most of these conditioning agents are known to provide various conditioning benefits.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-7532 from Kose relates to a hair conditioning composition comprising 0.1-8 wt % of a solid fatty alcohol, 0.1-5 wt % of a liquid fatty alcohol, 0.1-5 wt % of a cationic surfactant, 5-30 wt % of polyol, and 0.1-20 wt of a silicone derivative. This Kose publication also discloses a comparative example of the composition comprising 6% of cetyl alcohol, 3% of oleyl alcohol, 3% of demethylpolysiloxane, 1% of stearyltrimethylammonium chloride, and 50% of propylene glycol (Comparative example 10). This composition of Comparative example 10 is said that its feeling during application is slightly dissatisfied.
Separately, there is a need for conditioning compositions having transparent and/or translucent appearance. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-181142 from Sakamoto Yakuhin Kogyo relates to a transparent hair care cosmetic composition comprising 3-30 wt % of a glycerin and/or polyglycerin, 1-10 wt % of a polyether modified silicone, 0.1-5 wt % of a cationic high molecular compound, and 0.1-5 wt % of a cationic surfactant. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,685 from Helen Curtis which relates to a clear hair conditioning composition comprising: (a) about 0.4% to about 15% by weight of an amidoamine salt; (b) about 0.1% to about 5% by weight of a silicone compound having at least two quaternary ammonium moieties; and (c) an aqueous carrier. The US patent also discloses that the carrier is predominantly water but organic solvents also can be included, and discloses clear conditioning composition in examples containing 10% hexylene glycol and 4% propylene glycol, together with an amidoamine, lactic acid, and silicone. Also, there is a conditioner product example named “La Source” from Crabtree & Evelyn which contains Cetrimonium chloride, Cetyl alcohol, Glycerin, Butylene glycol, but with far lower transmittance (being from about 0.04% to about 0.06%).
Separately, H. Akatsuka etc. disclose in Col. Surf. A 326 (2008) 169-174 the effects of polyols on the rheological properties of ternary systems including behenyl trimethyl ammonium chloride (C22TAC), 1-octadecanol (C18OH) to improve the stability against shear forces, and also discloses the addition of 20-80 wt % of propylene glycol or glycerin to the system containing 2 wt % of behenyl trimethyl ammonium chloride and 4 wt % of 1-octadecanol. Transmittances of such systems with polyols are not described in this publication, however, are thought to be low in view of bilayer repeat distance shown in FIG. 8 in this publication.
However, there remains a need for such conditioning compositions to provide both translucent appearance and conditioning benefits, especially conditioning benefit on wet hair when used as a rinse-off conditioner and/or spreadability on hair.
None of the existing art provides all of the advantages and benefits of the present invention.